


infidelitas

by NeoVenus22



Category: Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon | Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon (Manga), Sailor Moon - All Media Types
Genre: F/M, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-12-19
Updated: 2009-12-19
Packaged: 2017-10-04 15:45:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 716
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/31871
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NeoVenus22/pseuds/NeoVenus22
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Setsuna can see through time, and knowing the future makes the present much worse.</p>
            </blockquote>





	infidelitas

The worst part was seeing Usagi's sunny smile. She draped herself over Haruka, oblivious to Michiru's indulgent amusement, and giggled about something that made sense only to her mind. Usagi thought like no other: a regal queen and a fierce warrior in the body of a lazy, sensitive schoolgirl.

In those moments, she didn't resemble any ruler at all. She was too young and too innocent. She was carefree, nothing like the queen that had birthed her or the one she would become, and Setsuna saw no resemblance to the firmly stoic Serenity that had first informed Setsuna of her terrible fate.

Those were the moments when Setsuna's guilt weighed on her the most heavily. She might have spent her time with the other senshi, but she was not truly one of them. She was the one who possessed the gift and the curse of having seen through time. She was the one whose life was stolen from her by Queen Serenity as she was told she was to be the solitary Guardian of Time, locked away from the rest of the kingdom, granted a great and fearsome power she was never supposed to use.

The others had been reborn into these lives. But she was the daughter of Chronos, the Guardian of Time, watching the universe destroy and rebuild itself while she remained frozen, unchanged, utterly alone at a door where Time held no meaning. She had nothing but memories, of things that happened a millennia ago, and things that hadn't yet happened, all playing out simultaneously at her lonely door.

So Setsuna carried the memory of the past, looking beyond the sparkling diamond of the Moon Kingdom to the less glittering, but no less beautiful jewel that was Earth. Earth, the forbidden planet. Forbidden because she wasn't supposed to leave her post. Forbidden because the planet's ruler was not hers to desire.

And she carried the memory of the future, of a man she should not want and could not stop herself from wanting.

It hadn't happened yet, but it had. In the cavernous chamber of Setsuna's impossible mind, she saw with utter clarity the past, present, and future blurring together. It all happened simultaneously: Usagi's treasured friendship, and Setsuna's cruel betrayal. The future queen in front of her laughed and called her a dear friend, and at the same time, the real queen of the future wept tears of bitter confusion.

And Setsuna Meioh, Sailorpluto, daughter of Chronos and the Guardian of Time, stood wrapped in the lavender cloak of the Silver Millennium's king, Endymion's dark eyes meeting hers with a twinkle of affection and a touch of despair. His lips met hers. The endless space seemed to develop some finiteness, as if she was at last constructing something to wall off the expanse of her loneliness.

It was a salvation, in a way, knowing that her life would not be lonely forever.

But it was also a damnation. The gesture would alienate the ruler she had for an eternity longed to fight alongside. She would forever sever the relationship with her lover's daughter, her one true friend. But for the touch of a loving hand, the only touch in the vast reaches of her impressive memory, she would have to make a sacrifice. The first Queen Serenity had doomed her to a life with superficial affection that came in bursts few and far between. The second Queen Serenity had kept her at a post without a second thought. It was destiny, an unbroken cycle. Except Setsuna was the one who was broken. She was the one who saw the war, unable to help fight. She was the one who saw history repeat itself. The one whose memories were not tampered or hidden or lost altogether, but fluid and all too easily accessible. It was not exactly omniscience, but a horrible case of memory.

At a point in time, she tightened her arms around Endymion's neck.

At another point, she heard the gleeful sounds of Usagi: young, in love, oblivious to how queenhood would cool her heart.

At another point, she heard Neo-Queen Serenity's cool demeanor fade in a cascade of tears.

And at the first point, her favorite point, she kissed back, knowing everything and going forth anyway. Such was her destiny.


End file.
